Assessing caregiver usability of the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents

Most foster and adoptive caregiver training curricula show limited effectiveness in improving the preparation of caregivers to care for foster and adoptive children and youth. In 2017, in response to the need for evidence-based and comprehensive training for foster and adoptive parents, the United States Children’s Bureau initiated a cooperative agreement to fund the development of the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC). As part of the curriculum development process, caregiver usability tests were conducted to assess caregiver perceptions of the structure of the three primary training components: (a) the caregiver self-assessment, (b) the classroom-based training curriculum, and (c) Right Time training curriculum. Participants were generally satisfied with the training components. Findings included the identification of a variety of content- and delivery-related strengths, as well as many recommended areas of improvement. This study summarizes findings from these caregiver usability tests, and provides a wide variety of caregiver-generated suggestions for improving foster and adoptive caregiver training curricula that are applicable to all caregiver training efforts.